The season of Lent that is coming to a close prepares us for the events of Holy Week and Easter that are so formational to our faith and the things that we profess to believe. We gather on Palm Sunday to cheer and sing and welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, preparing for Holy Week. Many of us like to live in that joy and excitement until the next Sunday morning when we will celebrate Easter and Jesus’ resurrection, but in doing so we can miss the whole point of Easter.
There is so much that must happen between now and then to prepare us for the magnitude of what Easter and the resurrection really mean. Our faith is formed and shaped in many ways during Holy Week. I’ve heard folx express that they don’t like Maundy Thursday or Good Friday as much as Palm Sunday and Easter because they can be depressing and bring us down. But as we journey with Jesus through these times, Easter becomes so much more special, so much more grace-filled, and so much more amazing. If we quickly skip over what happens on Friday, how can we fully understand what happens on Easter morning?
When we follow Jesus to the upper room where he so clearly calls us to service and discipleship, we grow and change. As we walk with him through his arrest and trial, and continue along with him and his disciples as they climb up the hill to Calvary, our faith is tested. How can God allow something like this to happen to God’s own son, something so terrible, so tragic? We need those experiences, we need to ask those questions to understand the depths of God’s love for us.
It is for each one of us that an innocent Jesus stands trial. It is for each one of us that Jesus is condemned to death, having committed no crime. It is for us that Jesus ascends that hill to Calvary carrying his own cross. It is in his love for us that the Son of God chooses to be nailed to a cross.
During Holy Week, it is Maundy Thursday and Good Friday that prepare us for Easter Sunday, and our walk beyond Easter. We cannot go from singing “Hosanna” to proclaiming “Christ is Risen” without following Jesus all the way down the road he travels, knowing what happens in between. We need to follow Jesus through the heart breaking, sacrificial parts of Holy Week so that we might better understand the cross and the true cost of the resurrection.
Yours in Christ,
